Currently, the beef industry is the largest sector of the agriculture economy of the United States. The industry includes nearly one million cattle producers. Many people envision the beef industry comprising expansive ranches and large cattle herds. In reality, the herd size of the average beef producer is less than 35 animals. Because of the sheer number of producers and their varying herd sizes, beef producers typically operate their production and marketing practices independently of one another and are rarely aligned with a common downstream specification. Cattle specifications are market descriptors of carcasses and live cattle that establish parameters such as the size, weight, age, sex, and type of feed provided to the animals. Specification details vary widely throughout the industry. As such, the beef supply chain has traditionally operated in an adversarial and segmented marketplace, rendering information sharing difficult.
Nevertheless, approximately 80% of all U.S. beef eventually pass through one of 400 large commercial feedyards, which prepare cattle to be harvested and made into beef products by major packing companies. Notably, these large feedyards generally have the capacity to handle 8,000 or more head of cattle at any given time. Other types of animals raised for meat also generally spend time in commercial feedyards in preparation for slaughter.
Despite advancements in vaccines and other medicines, animals at feedyards may be exposed to and/or spread diseases that are harmful to people. In December 2003, the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow” disease was reported in the U.S. Mad cow disease is a brain disease that kills cattle and may be transmitted to people who eat meat from infected cattle.
Concern over mad cow disease and other animal diseases that may affect people, particularly those labeled “foreign animal diseases” (FADs), have caused consumers to demand additional food safety and traceability assurances. These demands have served as a catalyst among food retailers to encourage, and in some cases mandate, that suppliers provide detailed information on the source of their products. For example, major retailers such as McDonalds®, Wal-Mart® and others have recently announced goals to require their beef supply to be fully traceable to the herd of origin. Doing so protects individuals from disease and allows potentially infected cattle to be treated in a manner appropriate to the situation. Treatment of diseased cattle can include treatment with suitable drugs, quarantine, and, if necessary, slaughter to prevent the disease from spreading further.
The lack of a fully traceable system has cost the beef industry billions of dollars. Other livestock industries also have suffered. When a diseased animal is discovered, there currently is no way to properly identify animals that have been intimately associated with the diseased animal so as to require appropriate treatment in a complete and timely manner. Thus, every animal is suspected of being infected with the disease and is treated in a like manner. Ultimately, the discovery of even a single diseased animal can affect an entire livestock industry.
For example, as a result of a case of mad cow disease in a U.S. cow, U.S. beef exports were ceased to many countries. This caused the beef industry to lose approximately $4.5 billion in export revenues. While the U.S. produces the safest beef supply in the world, international trade policy and consumer fears demand that every precaution be in place to ensure that the transmission of animal diseases is mitigated. Thus, a fully traceable system would be useful to identify the individual animals and groups that have commingled with a diseased animal. Then, only those animals that are diseased or have shared a location with the infected animal need be quarantined. Other healthy animals would still be available to move normally in commerce, e.g., to be bought, sold, shipped, etc.
Hence, there is a need for an animal tracking system that takes advantage of current commercial systems, is cost-effective, and adds value to the process. There also is a need for methods and systems for tracking animal movement in the normal stream of commerce, while protecting the confidentially of collected data and insuring the accuracy of the collected data.